Alex Neil felt the best move of the match from his Preston side won them the game against Rovers.

Daniel Johnson tucked home a Lukas Nmecha cross, a move which started from the feet of goalkeeper Declan Rudd, in what proved to be the only goal of the game in the eighth minute.

That was one of two shots on target for the visitors who defended manfully and restricted Rovers’ chances, despite Tony Mowbray’s side having the majority of the play, particularly in the second half.

Neil said: "I thought we started really well, from about the fifth minute to the 20th minute we played on top of them.

"The one quality move that we made, we got the goal from. You have to give credit to the move for the goal.

"It started with the keeper, fed into Ryan Ledson, Paul Gallagher played a lovely ball around the corner and we got Lukas Nmecha isolated which was something we had spoken about.

"He showed all the power and pace to drift past the centre-back and cut it back to DJ. The one thing we know with DJ is the quality he has on his left foot, so it was a really great goal.

"After that we sat a little bit deeper, absorbed some pressure and hit Blackburn on the counter. It was always going to be a tough match for us.”

Rudd made a smart save in the second half, to keep out a deflection off Preston midfielder Ryan Ledson, while a Danny Graham disallowed goal apart, Rovers toiled for long spells without success.

And Neil told the Lancashire Evening Post: “We had worked in the week on Blackburn playing 3-4-3 because I thought they might play that way.

"Although Blackburn had a lot of the ball and a lot of pressure, they didn't have a lot of clear-cut chances.

"In the second half, Declan Rudd only really had to make one save when the ball came off Ryan Ledson's foot.

"It wasn't vintage Preston shall we say but the three points are the most important thing right now."